It's easy to look at our present circumstances and let them dictate whether we think we can or cannot do something in the future. For example, perhaps you've attempted to lose some weight for years, yet when you look in the mirror, those unrelenting pounds are still staring you in the face. Or maybe you've made efforts to earn extra money, but your checking account remains consistently overdrawn. Or perhaps you've tried to lower your blood pressure, but your doctor tells you it's still too high. It requires enormous faith in yourself to stay focused on your goal when your current situation reflects something quite different.

To have faith regardless of your present circumstances requires great discipline-yet that is exactly what must happen if you want to make real changes in your life.

One proven way to develop empowering evidence to support your new belief is through a technique known as success imprinting. Belief, or self-confidence, is developed from past successes, or, as psychologists call them, success imprints. Success imprints are created anytime you have successfully achieved something that was thought to be difficult. Finishing a 5K run for the first time imprints a positive message on your subconscious, which makes the next race appear easier.

The same is true at work. Every time you accomplish something difficult, such as closing a complex sale, dealing with a challenging customer, or completing a project on time, you've created a success imprint that not only strengthens your self-esteem, but builds the belief that you can do it again in the future. Failures also create an imprint on our psyche and have the opposite effect on our self-esteem. That's why it's critical that we focus on each positive result, even if it seems like a baby step, so that we continue to create more of them in the future. Once you believe your goal is possible, the difficult will become routine.

For example, for years it was assumed that no one could break the 4-minute-mile barrier. Physiologists of the time considered it dangerous for anyone to even attempt to run a mile in less than 4 minutes. But on May 6, 1954, Roger Bannister broke that "unreachable" barrier. And once he did, the next 3 years saw 16 runners around the world also record sub-4-minute miles.

Success necessitates that we overcome obstacles. It is a natural part of the process. Each time we do so, we create a success imprint that strengthens our belief system and leads to greater and greater successes. When we consciously choose to rewrite our negative beliefs into positive ones, self-esteem and self-confidence will develop exponentially.



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